The Episcopal Conference held an extraordinary plenary assembly this Monday to study the report on sexual abuse in the Church by the Ombudsman, Ángel Gabilondo. The bishops reiterate their "pain for the damage caused by some members of the Church" and insist on "their request for forgiveness from the victims" and their desire to "work together on their comprehensive reparation."
The meeting, headed by Cardinal Juan José Omella, archbishop of Barcelona and president of the Episcopal Conference, was attended by 88 bishops, 31 in person and 57 by videoconference. The thesis that was imposed in the final note of the meeting positively values that Ángel Gabilondo's team placed the victims “at the center of the debate” and considers the recommendations of his report “valuable.”
The statement also appears surprised "by the extrapolation made from the data obtained in a survey attached to the report", with a more restrained tone even than that used by Cardinal Omella on Saturday, when he said on the social network Twitter) that these extrapolations were “lies.” Omella himself will star in a press conference on Tuesday in which he will address this matter.
These extrapolations, says the Episcopal Conference, “do not correspond to the truth nor do they represent the group of priests and religious who work loyally.” The bishops insist that pedophilia is “a scourge that affects the entire society, as the same report (from the Ombudsman) points out.” Ignoring its “mostly extra-ecclesial dimension,” they add, “means not facing the causes of the problem and perpetuating it.”
According to the leadership of the Spanish Church, “sexual abuse of minors is a social problem to which all public and private institutions have the duty to respond.” The Church, they say, "wants to contribute to eradicating sexual abuse in childhood and puts its sad experience at the service of society to do so." A single case of abuse would be “intolerable,” the statement says, and the Church's responsibility cannot be denied, as said by “some members of the plenary assembly, who have asked for forgiveness.”
The acting minister spokesperson, Isabel Rodríguez, indicated this Monday that the Church “should take good note” of the Ombudsman's report, whose rigor she praised while regretting that Spain had an outstanding “debt to the victims of these terrible attacks.” . The minister, however, avoided entering into the controversy due to the extrapolations of the survey figures presented by Ángel Gabilondo.
The Government, added Isabel Rodríguez, will also take good note of the recommendations included in the report, such as the creation of an economic fund for compensation for victims. The minister spokesperson encouraged the Church to do the same for a restorative process for the victims "which may have been late", although "it is always better to arrive than to consider it closed."
Before the start of the assembly of the Episcopal Conference, the archbishopric of Seville insisted on “zero tolerance” towards abuses in the Church and recalled “the need to promote the work and coordination of diocesan offices to investigate with rigor and depth each case and make it available to justice.” The Seville archbishop, José Ángel Saiz Meneses, recognizes that this is a “painful reality.”
